


Nautolan Headcanon & Worldbuilding

by evilkillerpoptarts, TessaDoesThings



Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Star Wars AU - Soft Wars, Star Wars AU-AU - Soft Wars
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-30
Updated: 2020-08-29
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:40:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26188885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/evilkillerpoptarts/pseuds/evilkillerpoptarts, https://archiveofourown.org/users/TessaDoesThings/pseuds/TessaDoesThings
Summary: My Nautolan headcanon has reached the point of "yep, probably should write this down for folks."  As I add things I'll be popping it in here, because I think worldbuilding is fascinating.
Comments: 11
Kudos: 43
Collections: Open Source Soft Wars





	Nautolan Headcanon & Worldbuilding

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Project0506](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Project0506/gifts), [TessaDoesThings](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TessaDoesThings/gifts).



> So many, many thanks to TessaDoesThings, who is doing a lot of heavy lifting in this headcanon!

Soft Wars canon!

-Kit has two rows of teeth; the inner row is very sharp and retractable.

-The lek-wraps he wears are covering vibration sensors.

-His arms are very photosensitive, hence glove-sleeves.

Canon/Legends:

[Nautolan Wookiepedia entry](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Nautolan) ← I am building off of anything and everything the SW universe sees fit to give me. It is a truly paltry sum.

My headcanon & worldbuilding

Nautolani are amphibious. They can breathe in any sort of oxygenated water regardless of salinity, as we’ve seen Kit function in just about anything. However, until they are about four years old, a Nautolan’s gills are too fragile to change salinity rapidly. They can always be put in fresh water but then have to be slowly acclimated to a body of salt water, over a period of weeks to months depending on age and how salty the water is. Glee Anselm is saltier than Concord Dawn because my own plot required it. Not all semi-aquatic species in Star Wars can do this; Mon Calamari cannot breathe in fresh water and would have some difficulty in a saltwater environment with a significant difference in salinity from Mon Cala. In addition, Nautolani adults are more or less fine in dry climates (though they may not necessarily be happy about it), whereas Mon Calamari need to be in a humid environment. Nautolani infants need to be kept damp at all times and young Nautolans prefer to be underwater. The weight of their head and developing lekku is a challenge for very young ones; being able to hold up their own head takes longer for a Nautolan child than a human.

They are born as an egg- betzah- and develop into a ro’shan, which is a tadpole-like state. They are more often born as twins and triplets than as a single. At this point in their lives, they are entirely vegetarian, and are generally left alone by their parents in a specialized tank, and is more like a mammalian gestation period. Being left alone is due to how delicate a ro’shan is; their skin is very thin and their bones fragile as they develop. Handling one is only to be done in extreme circumstances. The parents monitor their development, and having siblings in the same tank is good for their development. Parents who have a single egg usually coordinate care with another parent, so they do not have ro’shan growing up alone. As a very community-oriented culture, it is not uncommon to have a communal tank containing many ro’shan agemates. Their parents can tell them apart by pheromones, so there is no risk of an accidental infant swap. The ro’shan stage lasts approximately two years and a Nautolan is considered an infant when their eyes finally open. Their body is completely developed, and at this point they can begin to transition from vegetarian to omnivore.

To make my own life easier, time spent as a ro’shan does not “count” into their age, similar to in most human cultures, where it is the date of birth that matters, rather than the date of conception (or for Nautolans, date of the egg being laid.) So the date a Nautolan opens their eyes is considered their birthday, their yom chazon or “day of sight.”

Infants are fed a paste that begins with only algae/seaweed and has animal protein gradually mixed into it. They are capable of drinking it from a bottle; as a ro’shan they suctioned algae off the surfaces around them. They are perfectly capable of safely digesting raw meat and prefer it.

Around five-six months, their teeth begin to come in, and it’s the very sharp inner row. This row remains sharp but does not become retractable until their outer row develops later. Unlike with human babies, Nautolans do not allow a baby to chew on people, nor does an infant have the instinct to chew on their own hands. They are happy to chew on absolutely anything else, so teething toys are a constant companion. At this point, they are becoming very interested in catching and eating live prey. They will usually start with smaller, slower prey, and enjoy the challenge of opening bivalves, along with the CRONCH of taking a bite out of a crustacean. They can and will eat anything they can catch. There are usually areas that are stocked with creatures young Nautolani can eat for them to practice hunting. As they grow, a young Nautolan starts chasing faster and more agile prey, and are encouraged to do so. They are kept in the safe, stocked areas until they are a few years old and more experienced, and can understand the difference between something that is safe to eat and something that isn’t, and could potentially escape a predator. Most predators on Glee Anselm will not go after an adult Nautolan but will attempt to attack a child. Children are not allowed to be out alone without at least one adult to monitor for predators. Smaller children are usually physically tethered to a parent for safety so they cannot get too far away, especially in the event of a particularly strong current or a particularly strong-willed child.

Once finished developing from a ro’shan, they have fourteen lekku-tress buds on their heads. (canon calls them tentacles but I cannot, I’m sorry. Lekku, lekku-tresses or lek-tresses is what you’re getting.) These grow throughout their life, though this development slows down dramatically upon adulthood, and are how they interact most with their environment. They hear through the vibrations around them. By age two, larger vibration sensors begin to develop, usually on each lek, which are covered with lek-wraps and only uncovered when hunting. There is usually one towards the end of each lekku, and a second that develops closer to the head upon adulthood. Lekku are roughly shoulder-length by approximately age eight as seen from pictures of Zatt, with the first sensor located a few inches up on each lekku. [Zatt's Wookieepedia entry.](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Zatt) By their late teens/early adulthood, they fall approximately mid-back, as seen from pictures of Padawan Knox. [Knox's Wookiepedia entry.](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Knox) Knox appears to have both sets of sensors, though the placement of the wraps varies among characters.

Roughly 60% of Nautila, their spoken language, is via pheromones. They have very acute senses of smell/vibrations and can communicate very complex information this way. They consider those who cannot sense pheromones to be “pheromone-deaf” and it is not necessarily considered to be a bad thing, but it is why most also speak Basic and/or Anselmic. Pheromones are not as effective outside of the water but in close quarters it is still a viable method of communication. It is also an excellent way for Shel’ya to backsass adults who aren’t Kit, but will still get her in trouble the second he wanders in. Nautolans can still sense pheromones above water, including those of other species, and are quick studies of what those pheromones mean. “Reading a room” is very, very different, and probably a lot easier.

Spoken Nautila, along with a lot of cultural norms, are being borrowed wholesale from Hebrew. Tessa is my primary translator and we are working out the cultural aspects together to blend actual Hebrew cultural tradition into something that makes sense for a semi-aquatic species.

Why Hebrew? Tessa named Shel’ya back in the comments of chapter 1 of “We Have You, We’ll Keep You” and that got my brain whirling. I find the transliteration fascinating, as one alphabet is traded for another, and as Hebrew doesn’t actually have vowels it is very rarely written out in the Roman alphabet. I thought it was far more interesting to use an existing language that the average English speaker hasn’t seen written out, than making something up completely. Tessa seems to find it a fun challenge (she recently started a duolingo course and blames me, I am shameless though) and is enjoying doing the research involved. Or so she says.

**Author's Note:**

> If you have questions, please don't hesitate! I'm loving doing this!


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